Punishments can include stoning to death for adulterers and severing of limbs for theft

When Obama invited the tyrannical Sultan of Brunei to sit beneath the portrait of George Washington, it's a wonder the painting didn't fall off the wall.

Obama laughingly said that the Sultan had gone through "nine presidents", which is what happens when you don't do elections and praised the "160 years of friendship between the United States and Brunei."

Obama, in partnership with Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei and President of the Republic of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, today proposed the U.S.-Asia Pacific Comprehensive Partnership for a Sustainable Energy Future.

The United States will provide up to $6 billion to support the Partnership.

The Sultan of Brunei announced the phased introduction of tough Islamic punishments including death by stoning for crimes such as adultery, in the monarchy’s latest step towards conservatism.

Based on the details of particular cases, punishments can include stoning to death for adulterers, severing of limbs for theft and flogging for violations ranging from abortion to consumption of alcohol, according to a copy of the code.

“By the grace of Allah, with the coming into effect of this legislation, our duty to Allah is therefore being fulfilled,” said the sultan, now 67 years old.

An all-powerful figure whose family has ruled the languid, oil-rich country of 400,000 for six centuries, the sultan first called in 1996 for the introduction of sharia criminal punishments.

Clearly the Sultan of Brunei, net worth $20 billion, with oil and gas reserves, needed Obama's Green Energy billions. But while Obama is happy to subsidize an Islamic system where they chop the hands off thieves, considering the amount of money he has stolen from Americans, he obviously wouldn't want to live under one.